Selective autophagy has emerged as a crucial quality control pathway that enables cells to adapt to changing environmental conditions and intrinsic demands. Through the recruitment of damaged and unwanted cellular components into de novo formed double membrane vesicles, known as autophagosomes, and their subsequent degradation in lytic compartments, selective autophagy facilitates cellular reprogramming. The recruitment of specific cargo is mediated by cargo receptors that bridge the cargo with the growing autophagosome. Despite recent advances that underscore the critical role of selective autophagy in stress tolerance, our understanding of the full range of cargo receptors involved in these processes remains incomplete. In this presentation, I will describe our recent findings, where we leveraged evolutionary diversity to discover new cargo receptors in plants. Our comparative studies in plants have led us to identify a cross-kingdom conserved selective autophagy process that maintains endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis in humans. Through this work, we hope to establish autophagy as a template for addressing a fundamental question in evolutionary cell biology: how do cellular innovations arise in different branches of life?